Why we left California: Its legislature put crazy woke ideology ahead of kids' wellbeing

The Hill

2 days ago

In 2019, my family packed our belongings and left California, the state we had called home for most of our lives. Why? Well, high taxes were part of the equation. But more than anything, we left to protect our then 10-year-old daughter from a system that no longer made sense— or felt safe.
One moment crystallized it: sitting in the pediatrician's waiting room, we learned that once our daughter turned 12, we would no longer have access to her medical records without her consent.
That's not parental empowerment. That's state intrusion — and it was just the beginning.
California's unraveling isn't just about affordability or policy overreach. It is also about a government that has deprioritized the safety, dignity, and wellbeing of children in favor of a progressive-left agenda.
Take Assembly Bill 90, which requires community colleges and state universities to create overnight parking programs for the 4.2 percent of homeless students in their systems.
On the surface, it sounds compassionate. In reality, it is a stark admission of policy failure.
In 2016, California adopted the federal 'Housing First' model, which promises permanent housing units — without preconditions — to all struggling with homelessness. This policy was overlaid onto a system that already ranked 49th in the nation in housing units per resident, and that builds just 40 percent of the affordable units it needs annually.
Instead of fixing these systemic failures, AB 90 effectively turned parking lots into student housing, exposing students to crime, isolation, and instability. Assemblymember Darshana Patel (D) stood virtually alone in raising student safety concerns. In a party-line, 6-2 vote, the bill passed committee.
Then there's Assembly Bill 379, written to increase penalties for child sex traffickers. Unfortunately, that version didn't survive. Progressive-left lawmakers stripped the bill of protections for 16- and 17-year-olds — the very age group most targeted by traffickers, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
California's majority party couldn't bring itself to protect minors from sexual exploitation, because somehow this apparently conflicted with their political narrative.
The same pattern shows up in school sports. Two common-sense bills intended to safeguard fairness and safety for female athletes were killed in committee. These bills would have barred biological males from competing against girls— something California Gov. Gavin Newsom himself has admitted to be 'deeply unfair.'
Decades of research and a 2020 study published in Sports Medicine confirm the physical advantages biological males have over females, even after hormone therapy. To refuse to acknowledge this reality is to deny basic science. It isn't just unfair but dangerous to have males competing in girls' and women's sports, especially contact sports.
All this is happening while California funnels billions into climate initiatives and green infrastructure despite ranking 41st in K-12 education and 39th in school safety. California also leads the nation in youth depression and self-harm, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
And let's not forget that during the COVID-19 pandemic, California kept students out of classrooms longer than almost any other state. That decision caused historic learning loss— particularly among low-income students. To date, there has been no meaningful academic recovery plan.
What's the matter with California? To sum up: Parents can't access their children's medical records without the children's permission; students' dorms are the backseats of their Honda Civics; vulnerable teens go unprotected from traffickers; female athletes are deliberately put at risk.
These aren't glitches. They are all symptoms of a deeper collapse — a moral and political refusal to prioritize the wellbeing of children over ideology.
California once led the nation in education, innovation, and opportunity. Now, despite its natural beauty and economic power, it has become a cautionary tale about what happens when a government trades responsibility for radicalism. That's why my family joined the hundreds of thousands of net residents who have moved away to other states in recent years.
Unless its leaders correct course — putting kids first and politics second — California won't just keep failing her children. She will also set a dangerous precedent for the rest of America.
Michele Steeb is the founder of Free Up Foundation and author of 'Answers Behind the RED DOOR: Battling the Homeless Epidemic,' based on her 13 years as CEO of northern California's largest program for homeless women and children.